Plan to reorganise AL with Ivy at the helm

Awami League has planned to reorganise the Narayanganj unit at every level ahead of the next parliamentary election.

The party policymakers think Selina Hayat Ivy has proven her popularity and oraganisational competence being elected the mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) for the third consecutive term.

Reorganising the local unit with Ivy at the helm will strengthen the party, they believe.

Local MP Shamim Osman has been controlling the politics in Narayanganj for a long time. However, the influence of the Osman family started declining after Shamim Osman was defeated by Selina Hayat Ivy in the mayoral election of 2011 by a huge margin.

However, followers of Shamim Osman are still influential in different committees of the party. Therefore, the district, city committees of Awami League and its associate bodies were not proactive in favour of Ivy during the NCC polls. Some of the Awami League leaders individually worked for her.

Awami League leaders, who monitored the city polls, said after the intervention of central leaders, the followers of Shamim Osman showed some activity just for show.

However, Ivy won the election by a huge margin without any help from the Osman family just as the previous two occasions. Ivy’s victory is considered as the evidence of her popularity and organisational competence at one end, and a defeat of criminalisation of politics in Narayanganj on the other.

In this context, the leaders of the party think that it is time to reorganise the Narayanganj Awami League at every level.

According to the sources of Awami League’s central committee, the central leaders of the party stayed in Narayanganj for 10-15 days and apprised the party chief of the fragile condition of the party in the district. They think there is no organisational activity or politics in Narayanganj.

Later, following the directives of the party chief, the Chhatra League Narayanganj city committee was dissolved on 9 December.

Ayon Osman, son of Shamim Osman, was highly influential in that committee. Later on 13 January, all the committees under the district and city Swechchhasebak League were dissolved. After the NCC polls, all the committees of Shramik League at district and thana level were dissolved on 17 January.

With this, the process of reorganising the party has started, said the party sources. There are also plans to dissolve the committees of several associate bodies including Jubo League, Mahila League, Krishok League and Tanti League.

However, the district and the city Awami League committees are the main structural unit of the party. These two committees are hardly dissolved. Therefore, these committees will be formed through party councils.

Acting organising secretary of Awami League for Dhaka division, Mirza Azam, told Prothom Alo that the dates for the councils of Narayanganj city and district Awami League would be finalised in the next meeting of the party’s central executive committee.

He said, “Party activities are stagnant in Narayanganj. So it is high time to reorganise the local unit.”

At the moment, just as the district and city committees, the associate bodies of the party are divided in two factions.

Since Ivy won the election without full support of the party, the policymakers of the party are in favour of reorganising the party around her. In this case, Ivy may be given important responsibilities in the city or district committees. But some in the party say since Ivy is in charge of one of the major city corporations of the country, the new committees can be formed prioritising her choices instead of giving her an important post in the party.

When asked about this, Awami League joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim told Prothom Alo that a unit of the party gets dissolved when it could not succeed in its work or if it could not show the required competence to take the party forward. In Narayanganj, it seems that there is a need for this change. It would be done in accordance with a proper procedure.

The Narayanganj city committee of Awami League was formed on 12 September 2013 and the district committee was formed on 9 October 2016. Both of the three-year-term committees expired long ago. Ivy was elected the chairman of Narayanganj Pourashava (municipality) first. Later, she was elected the mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation for three consecutive terms. Despite that, she was deprived of any post in the city committee. She was given the post of senior vice-president in the district committee in 2016.

Shamim Osman is the no. 1 member of the committee. Although he is not holding any vital post, most of the leaders in the city committee and other associate bodies are known to be his followers.

Selina Hayat Ivy has been getting the support from district Awami League president Abdul Hai and city Awami League president Anwar Hossain since being elected the mayor in 2016.

On condition of anonymity, a central leader of Awami League told Prothom Alo that there are instances that Shamim Osman left the country under an adverse situation in the past.

But Ivy never did that. Therefore, Ivy is needed to hold the political ground in any future situation. So the party should be reorganised with Ivy at the helm, according to several leaders of the party.

*This report originally appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been re-written in English by Ashish Basu